How Federal Agencies Can Enhance Their RSS Feeds For Free

The federal agency responsible for thousands of international radio and television broadcasts is using Google Currents, a free tool that potentially could be the blueprint for every federal agency distributing RSS feeds to big audiences.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors — which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio and TV Marti, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks — launched the Google Currents platform last October to disseminate its content easily and swiftly to its weekly audience of 175 million in 59 languages.

“We’re fortunate to be one of the early publishers on the platform,” said Randy Abramson, director of products and operations at BBG’s Office of Digital and Design.

“Our timing was good because just as we were set to launch, Currents became a pre-installed app on most Android Jelly Bean-enabled devices,” he added.

Google Currents is an app that provides a magazine-like experience allowing users to swipe through content on mobile phones and tablets, as if they were flipping through the pages of a magazine. The Currents application comes preinstalled on many Google Android devices and can give government agencies enhanced access to audiences on all mobile platforms. …